Archive for May, 2008

I find this utterly amazing.

NASCAR handed down its most severe penalties yet on its new car Wednesday, when the crew chiefs and car chiefs for Scott Riggs and Johnny Sauter were suspended six races apiece for tampering with the rear wings on their Chevrolets last weekend at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.

Additionally, crew chiefs Bootie Barker and Dave Skog were fined $100,000 each. Derick Jennings and Thomas Harris, the car chiefs, were not fined but their suspensions are unprecedented. All four must sit out until the July 12 race in Chicago, and are on probation through the end of the year.

Riggs and Sauter were each docked 150 driver points, penalties that severely hurt the struggling teams. The cars are both fielded by Haas-CNC Motorsports, which was docked 150 owner points for each Chevrolet. Haas general manager Joe Custer is listed as the owner for Riggs’ No. 66, and Margaret Haas is listed as the owner of Sauter’s No. 77.

The points deduction is the second largest in NASCAR history, only behind the 151 points Jeremy Mayfield and his team were docked for using an illegal fuel additive at Talladega in 2000.

I don’t know if I should be shocked that the penalties were so severe, or the fact that NASCAR seems be getting a little more consistent when it comes to these types of violations. Either way, I am truly shocked.

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The Pittsburgh Penguins took game 3 of the Stanley Cup playoffs last night.

The Penguins are 0-for-The Joe but downright perfect at home.

After two shutout losses to the Red Wings in Detroit’s Joe Louis Arena, Sidney Crosby scored Pittsburgh’s first two goals of the Stanley Cup finals and carried the Penguins to a 3-2 victory Wednesday night.

It was good to know that, after games 1 and 2, that the Penguins players were still breathing. I had begun to doubt that fact.

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Yowza. I thought the Red Wings were making the Penguins look bad during Game 1. I had no idea what they had planned for Game 2.

If the Red Wings keep this up, the next time they perform back in Hockeytown could be along a parade route.

Producing timely offense and perfectionist defense, Detroit is not only beating the Pittsburgh Penguins, they are shutting them out.

With first-period goals from Brad Stuart and Tomas Holmstrom and another lockdown effort, the Red Wings topped the Penguins 3-0 to take a 2-0 lead in the Stanley Cup finals on Monday night.

The Penguins better step up their game if they intend to, you know, actually make a goal or two.

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What an interesting couple of races we had this weekend huh?

I will start with the Indy 500. Wow. There were more surprises in that race than I am used too. How many times do you see a driver knock his teammate out of the race, and then watch another driver crash into another driver on pit road to the extent it knocks them out of the race too?

First, Marco Andretti knocked Tony Kanaan out of the race,

After Briscoe’s parking lot-caliber mishap, the second-worst move probably belonged to Marco Andretti, heir to one of the great names in the sport. The grandson of Mario, the patriarch and only Andretti ever to win one of these, pinched teammate Tony Kanaan on the low side while passing him on Lap 106 and caused a spinout that ended the Brazilian’s day.

Told afterward that Marco Andretti said over the team radio he was sorry, Kanaan, one of the pre-race favorites, shot back, “He’d better be. It was a very stupid move.”

And then Ryan Briscoe smashed into the backend of Danica Patrick on pit road.

Danica Patrick, the sport’s glamour girl, saw her day ended when Ryan Briscoe pulled out of his pit box too quickly and skidded into the back of her car, wrecking the suspension. After climbing out, a steamed Patrick began striding purposefully down the lane, yanked off her gloves and looked ready for a second collision with Briscoe—this time between her fist and his face.

But after she brushed past one uniformed speedway official, a plainclothes security officer persuaded Patrick to climb over the pit wall and back in the direction of the garage. She stormed past a few waiting TV cameras and into a sponsor’s hut but eventually cooled off and reappeared later.

“Probably best,” she conceded, “that I didn’t get down there, anyway.”

Holy smoke. Oh yeah, While we’re discussing Smoke, the Coca-Cola 600 was Tony Stewarts to lose. And lose he did.

Tony Stewart suffered his second heartbreaking defeat of the season Sunday night when a flat tire late in the Coca-Cola 600 handed Kasey Kahne the victory in NASCAR’s longest race of the year.

Stewart, who lost the season-opening Daytona 500 when he was passed on the last lap by Ryan Newman, had the tire go flat with three laps to go. He was forced to pit, allowing Kahne to zip past him for the victory.

I tell you… Neither race ended the way I expected them too, but they weren’t boring, that’s for sure.

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It wasn’t the greatest game in the history of the sport, that’s for sure, but tonight’s game between the Detroit Red Wings and the Pittsburgh Penguins was okay.

It’s no surprise the Detroit Red Wings have a Swede to thank for a prime-time performance, but Mikael Samuelsson?

The demoted forward busted out of a slump with two goals, and Chris Osgood stifled the Pittsburgh Penguins’ young and talented stable of forwards with 19 saves to lift the Red Wings to a 4-0 victory in the opening game of the Stanley Cup finals on Saturday night.

I don’t know if it’s the fact I am patiently waiting for tomorrow’s Coca-Cola 600 or what, but I wasn’t too impressed with the game as a whole. The Red Wings did a great job and they made the Penguins look pretty bad. Hopefully game 2 will be a bit more exciting.

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Humpy Wheeler seemed to be in the news a bit more this year than before, and I couldn’t figure out why. Now I know.

Humpy Wheeler, the “P.T. Barnum” of NASCAR promotions, will retire and step down as president and general manager of Lowe’s Motor Speedway, The Associated Press has learned.

This weekend’s Coca-Cola 600 will be Wheeler’s last race for Lowe’s Motor Speedway, two people familiar with the decision told the AP. They requested anonymity because an official announcement, which could come as early as Wednesday, has not yet been made.

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He prides himself as a master prognosticator, annually predicting the winner of the All-Star race in grand fashion. Last week, Wheeler used a backflipping dog to predict the acrobatic Carl Edwards would win Saturday night’s $1 million sprint. He didn’t.

Wheeler’s had just two right since 2001 after correctly picking six of seven winners from 1989-95.

I wonder if he will still make his yearly prediction?

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I have to admit, Kyle Busch has been very impressive lately. Of course, he hasn’t finished well in all races, but heck, he’s doing a damn good job this season. The best move for Kyle was signing with Joe Gibbs Racing.

Kyle Busch likes an unobstructed view at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.

Busch on Thursday claimed the pole for Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600, clocking 185.433 miles per hour in a Toyota Camry.

The 23-year-old’s time of 29.12 seconds on Friday gave him a clean sweep of the three qualifying events that have been held at this 1.5-mile tri-oval over the last week. Busch also won the poles here last Friday for the Craftsman Truck Series North Carolina Education Lottery 200 and the Sprint All-Star Race.

I still can’t get over this seasons “mediocrity”, but I will be watching on Sunday.

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It looks like the Red Wings will be playing the Penguins for the Stanley Cup. Yeah, we didn’t see that coming did we? It was nice of the Red Wings to tempt fate by taking it to game 6 tonight.

Dominant in the regular season, superb again in the postseason, the Detroit Red Wings are headed back to the Stanley Cup finals.

With gusto, too.

Just when the Red Wings lost consecutive games and were starting to look vulnerable, they bounced back strong in Game 6 of the Western Conference finals, getting first-period goals from Kris Draper, Pavel Datsyuk and Dallas Drake on their way to knocking out the Dallas Stars 4-1 on Monday night.

I can hardly wait for Saturday.

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Lloyd Moore, a NASCAR pioneer who ran 49 races between 1949 — the first year of what is now the Sprint Cup Series — and 1955, died Sunday. He was 95.

Moore posted 13 top-fives and 23 top-10s with one win, at Winchester, Ind., on Oct. 15, 1950.

Moore, who lived in the Frewsburg, N.Y., house in which he was born on June 8, 1912, also died in the same home.

A school bus driver in the early 1930s, Moore also worked as a mechanic in a Studebaker garage. He made his NASCAR debut on Oct. 2, 1949, at Heidelberg Raceway in Pittsburgh, Pa., Moore finished sixth behind Lee Petty.

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Moore is survived by his wife, Virginia; six children; 14 grandchildren; and 32 great-grandchildren.

Rest In Peace, Lloyd.

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I was out at a rodeo tonight, but I recorded the All-Star race. I have to say, I was shocked. When we heard that Kasey Kahne won the race, the kids actually said, “Kasey Kahne still races?” He must have some fans somewhere because they voted him into the race in the first place.

Kasey Kahne won a popularity contest, then parlayed it into a $1 million payday.

After failing to qualify for the All-Star race, Kahne grabbed a spot in the field when the fans voted him into Saturday night’s event at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.

Already running on house money, he gambled on his final pit stop to steal the $1 million prize. And in holding off Greg Biffle in the final segment, Kahne became just the third driver in All-Star race history to advance from the preliminary race into the show and then win the main event.

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Earnhardt faded to eighth after leading 14 laps in the third segment and was followed by Mark Martin and Carl Edwards, who was picked by track president and master prognosticator Humpy Wheeler to win the race.

Oh, yeah, and Humpy Wheeler was wrong. Again.

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